YouTube’s AdWords-Like Product Now Part of AdWords

YouTube this morning said it is making its “Promoted Videos” advertising product available through Google AdWords. “This integration will provide a single destination for your overall Google ad buy, and will give YouTube advertisers access to campaign tools in AdWords,” according to an emailed announcement.

Rather than contextual text advertising shown next to videos, Promoted Videos are contextual video advertising. Advertisers use them to drive views to their own videos amidst the crowd of content on YouTube.

YouTube — being characteristically vague with its stats — said clicks on promoted videos are up 500 percent since January, driving “millions of video views per week.” Alongside the launch, YouTube extended Promoted Videos from just the U.S. to Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.